Hustle
by Ruth Lechner
Summary: Sequel to 'Verdant'. MUST READ FIRST STORY TO UNDERSTAND. Khan/OC. "Someone, somehow, had put a wedge between the two of them; and he WOULD find her. No one would keep him from his mate. Come what may - burning cities, falling skies - he would find Dana again." Mature themes


Verdant's sequel. :P Hello everyone! :D Enjoy reading :)

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><p>There was something not right about the woman. Something just wasn't... right. When Adrian's leader had enlightened him to the identity of the woman - Adrian's friend - he did not agree. He did not argue, but did not agree either. He would have recognized Dana Green, for who she was, instantly. When he'd read her name tag he'd simply assumed her a doppleganger, a look alike of the woman he knew three hundred years ago. Perhaps a great, great, great granddaughter. Khan had explained that Dana had found a way to immortality, but that woman, who looked, sounded, breathed, and walked like the woman he once knew - there was something off. So small, it almost couldn't be pinpointed. But she was not the same woman he knew.<p>

O

He found her in the kitchen, cooking pancakes in a knee length summer dress, even though outside it was not summer. Outside, the clouds were grey.

Khan's eyes were focused balls of fire.

His first clue had been when she couldn't tell him how she'd survived the crash to Earth. That was when his suspicions first arose. Then, throughout his interactions with her in this apartment, there were too many things that didn't add up. Too much confusion. Dana was usually unpredictable so it masked the flaws, but when he thought about it coldly and objectively, when it instincts picked up one too many things that did not add up...

"You are not Dana Green."

This life, her clothes, her explanations for things long past. They were wrong. They were all _wrong. _The crytotube incident? That wasn't how that happened. He, and his augments distinctly remembered a different story. And how did she get off the Enterprise and onto Earth without a medium between the two? She'd never explained it to him. Although obvious - in fact, _mocking him _with how obvious it was; it hid in plain sight and he'd underestimated it - her clever, imaginative stories had diverted him from finding out the truth. He'd never let himself be swayed from his original goal like that. He thought he'd seen right through her, wait her out until she told him, but really, he was the one fooled.

Her head raised from where she was cooking, and then she put down her spatula. She turned to see him in the doorway standing like a behemoth; eyes, blue and triumphant accompanied with a smile, on her.

"I knew it. Who are you?" He'd managed to calm down his rage, to think this logically. After taking a breather to strategize, he was back. She looked like the episode hadn't happened, which was all the more evidence that this girl was _not _Dana. He had to find out who and what this facsimile was before he made a move. His mate could be in danger.

"I am Dana Green." There was no inflection in her voice of a lie. He would be able to hear it.

"Oh come now," He stepped forward, voice soft and coaxing and a little sexy. "You've been found out. Drop the act, and reveal who you are." He stood in front of her, his eyes raking over her face. "You certainly are a fair replication, in fact, nearly fooled me completely. Except you forgot, dear, that I'm not human. I'm superhuman. That means, I'm better. Better eyesight, sense of smell... You didn't fool me for one minute, but you thought you did, didn't you?"

Her green eyes looked between his blue ones.

"They've programmed you somehow with her behaviors, with her thought patterns, but you are _not _she who is my mate. They wanted her long ago, and somehow they got her. _You _are the replacement, intended to fool me. You fall," He stood closer intimidatingly, his voice dropping into his serious, dark, deep tone that signaled he was going to tear something apart. "completely, and utterly short of her glory." His eyes shone in all their savagery.

"Tell me. I will no longer ask. Who. Are. You."

O

The thing with Dana Green was that she did not show up in the governmental records. At all. While Khan found Dana and distracted her there, he had Adrian and his other augments find what they could about Dana in the governmental records.

It was when they made their escape from Section 31 - after he'd been re-frozen after the debacle with the Enterprise - that Khan used his location to his advantage and tried to come up with the records of Dana Green. He found her employee file, where she lived, her false date of birth and history record. That was it. Dana herself admitted when he'd been a prisoner aboard the Enterprise that her file and identity was fabricated by Section 31 of Starfleet so that she could work aboard ships like the Enterprise. Such incredible trust they had in her.

When that didn't work, Khan kept hanging around Dana in her house/apartment while he sent his right hand man to investigate more into Dana Green. There was the matter that Khan, when he'd first been awoken in this time in Section 31 of Starfleet, he'd been allowed to catch up in Earth's history, but he'd been absolutely barred from inquiring anything personal about anybody - much less their top secret, Dana.

And that was the only explanation. There had to have been something about Dana that made her so coveted by Section 31, the Federation, Starfleet. Made sense really, Khan thought. Immortality would do that to any government. He found his thoughts would sometimes turn dark over this without his consent, he'd wonder what they'd do to her, what sort of methods of torture she'd undergone, all in the efforts of recovering such a precious secret. He wondered how much she'd told them.

There was the matter that Khan's blood, and his augment's blood, was able to cure any illness and even bring back the recently dead. She said she'd been assigned by Admiral Marcus to creating more like him, so he'd have even more super soldiers. But that assignment could only have been given after he and his family had been discovered in their cryotubes - who knew what happened in the 300 years before then.

They somehow got to her and Khan was going to get her out. Starting with this facsimile.

O

He looked over her. Nodded to himself.

She was so beautiful. So exquisite. Physically, there was no flaw. With his enhanced senses, even he could not tell her apart from the real thing.

"You really are a good replicant." He said, calmly, quieter than where his voice had been building before. Calm, with knowledge. It kept the cogs in his mind whirring. "You look like her, you smell like her, you speak and think like her. Whoever engineered you was very, very good at what he or she was doing. Whoever you are, they knew what they were doing. But they missed something, a key ingredient that only Dana has. A certain..." His face contorted and his mouth snarled it out, "Ineffability. And the flaws in your psychology break through. Who goes through the intense trauma of their lover shouting on one's face and then behaves naturally? Someone with the limits of artificial engineering, perhaps."

O

"Now. I will not waste time on any more riddles. Tell me your real name."

She narrowed her green eyes.

"I am Dana Green."

"Of course."

O

Now that he knew the whole story, Khan's rage was unparalleled. Of course, it all made sense. This apartment, her old fashioned clothes, this _modern life - _all facsimiles! Now that he knew that this parody was not the real thing, he could never look upon it with a single hairsbreadth of love that lay in his heart for Dana. It wasn't her. A diversion? A decoy? A copy, most definitely. Without love for it, whatever it was, he left it broken on it's kitchen floor, leaving a stormy exit. His instincts hadn't erred - somehow that was Dana, and somehow it was not. Since that wasn't the original, that meant the original was out there somewhere. She was definitely still alive - he would have felt otherwise if she were not. Someone, somehow, had put a wedge between the two of them; and he would find her. No one would keep him from his mate. Come what may - burning cities, falling skies - he would find Dana again.

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><p>Hope it all makes sense. If it doesn't, then it will. But please feel free to voice your confusion or things that don't add up, because there are good chances that I've probably missed something too. A lot of things are definitely there on purpose, but there may be a side that I haven't thought about. Happy reading!<p> 


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